O’Dwyer signals rapid exposure of super to compensation claims

The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer has signalled she will be adopting a strongly sympathetic position on exposing superannuation to victims of crime compensation claims and wants to make the changes in the first half of next year.

Backing the Government’s moves to open formal discussion around the protected status of superannuation in such instances, O’Dwyer said the process would “absolutely look at whether or not superannuation ought to remain protected in certain circumstances”.

“…We already know that in certain circumstances where there are bankruptcies, where there are divorce proceedings, somebody can’t deny access to their superannuation and the Commonwealth is very open to changing the law in this regard so we will go out for comment,” she said.

O’Dwyer said the Government had opened the review process and would be asking people to provide information in relation to it and then look to make changes early in the new year.

“As I’ve said publicly on a number of occasions, I don’t see why someone should be able to protect their assets through superannuation in circumstances where a victim would otherwise be granted access to those assets,” she said. “So I don’t see why it would be a special case in relation to superannuation when a victim would be able to get access to those assets in ordinary circumstances.”

“I myself am very sympathetic to a change, which is why I’m actually embarking upon this review and there will be a very clear end point to this. I’m keen for feedback but we’re also keen to get on with it and we’ll be doing that in the first half of next year.”

Author

Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor is Managing Editor of the financial services publications Money Management and Super Review. He has been a journalist for the past 41 years with a career spanning coverage of financial services, federal and state politics and industrial relations.